Inside the Star

Woman who blames Rogers for exposing affair says she’s not alone

The Toronto woman who blames a cellphone bill for breaking up her marriage says she is launching a campaign to improve privacy protection in Ontario. Gabriela Nagy is also looking for other frustrated customers to join her lawsuit against telecommunications giant Rogers.

Gabriela Nagy, wearing a wig and sunglasses, with publicist J.P. Pampena, claims her husband found out about her affair when Rogers consolidated her household's bills.

By:Brendan KennedyStaff Reporter, Published on Wed Jun 16 2010

The Toronto woman who blames a Rogers cellphone bill for breaking up her marriage says she is launching a campaign to improve privacy protection in Ontario.

Gabriela Nagy has launched a Facebook group to help look for other frustrated customers to join her lawsuit against the telecommunications giant for what she claims was a breach of her privacy.

“If we have no privacy, we are nothing,” Nagy told a news conference Wednesday.

Nagy claims a unilateral decision by Rogers to consolidate her household’s bills allowed her husband to discover she was having an affair. That, she says, led to the “destruction” of her marriage.

She is suing the telecommunications giant for $600,000, claiming invasion of privacy and breach of contract. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

In a statement of defence, Rogers says it cannot be held responsible for Nagy’s affair and the consequential breakup of her marriage.

Wearing a wig, dark sunglasses and all-black clothing — and flanked by publicist J.P. Pampena — Nagy claimed 12 other people have come forward with similar stories since her story was first published. Four of them have signed affidavits in support of her lawsuit, she said, and “some are almost carbon copies of my case,” she said.

Nagy claims her husband discovered she was having an affair after the company included her previously private cellphone charges on a “global” invoice that included all of the household’s services, exposing the phone calls she was making to her extramarital lover.

Nagy said federal privacy laws have no teeth and Ontario doesn’t have its own privacy laws, like B.C., Newfoundland, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

However, she was sketchy on the details of what she would like to see implemented, referring legal questions to her lawyer, Edward Tonello.

Nagy also said she regrets her affair and knows that she may not garner much public sympathy.

“It’s shameful, it’s immoral,” she said in describing her situation, but added that, “I cannot erase the past.”

Nagy said it was because of her affair, and the subsequent dissolution of her marriage, that she became aware of what she calls Rogers’s “lax” approach to protecting its customers’ privacy.

“This is not just my story,” she said, referring to the other individuals who she said came forward anonymously to her lawyer. She says she has not had any contact with those individuals herself.

At the news conference, Pampena provided the statements from the four men who apparently have agreed to sign affidavits in support of Nagy’s lawsuit, but the men are only identified as Mr. K, Mr. X, Mr. D and Mr. T.

Pampena deferred comment about the legitimacy of the affidavits to Tonello, who was not at the news conference and did not immediately return phone calls.

Nagy’s campaign, dubbed Citizens Helping Individuals Reform Privacy Policies (CHIRPP), on Facebook had 13 members by 2 p.m. Wednesday, most of whom were critical of Nagy.

Nagy refused to say whether Rogers had offered to settle out of court, or if she was interested in a settlement. She said she would still be pursuing the lawsuit even if her husband had not left her after uncovering the affair.

Nagy also said she has switched her cellphone service to Bell and is much happier with its privacy protections.

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